Inspiration? Where are you?

[Nimble Goodbarrel]

As a DM who has been out of the D&D seen for a while and for various reasons (see my blog) I have been trying to find some inspiration. I have been visiting WotC and EN World of course (everyone has been great, thanks). I have also been using the usual, books, movies, old quests and material.

So my question to you is; Where do you find your inspiration?

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

At the risk of sounding like the smart alec that my grup knows me to be, the answer to your question would be a "Yes" answer.
I get my inspiration from almost anywhere. Some examples would be:

1) After watching the enwest version of Night of the Living Dead, or Dawn of the Dead, or whatever it was (with the guy across from the mall shooting celebrities with his rifle), I decided to throw a little side adventure that the party didn't expect, and had them run into a castle/city-state that was overrun by zombies while they were there, and they had to get out in once piece. It took me a bit of planning, and re-working every time I found something that screwed with something else I had written; however, it was an absolute blast, and the characters (well, most of them) barely escaped with their minds and continued on with their original mission.

2) Watching TV, my girfriend was watching some show or another about some mass murder or another (I think is was Dahmer), and decided that the nice little old lady living just outside of town was actually a mass murderer, and was getting away clean because no one would ever think that nice little old lady who was a pillar in the community, and idolized by everyone would ever do such a thing.

3) My stepson was watching Lord of the Rings for the, oh, 10,000th time and I started working on an entire campaign designed around the Dwarf Cleric in our party looking for his grandfather's armor, which is thought to have been lost in the ancient mines... you get the idea.

For the game Recon (out of print, I bleieve) I did a mission based on the US invasion of Grenada, borrowing heavily, of course, from the movie Heartbreak Ridge.

Anyhow, Nimble ,you get the idea.
You can find missions/campaigns/ etc from almost anything in the mundane world.

Happy writing!

 

[Wombat]

Oh boy ... where do I get inspiration?

I'd say from books, first and foremost. Novels, short stories, histories, collections of folk tales, works on religion, sociology, linguistics, armour making, etc. Some of these are classic, some are current, some are very current, some centuries old -- this is still my major source.

Related to this, I'd have to include my game books. I have games from well over a dozen systems near at hand -- D&D (OD&D, 3.X), GURPS (3rd ed sourcebooks), Ars Magica (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th), Paranoia, Mechanical/Dream, 7th Sea, World of Darkness (mainly the new version), Blue Planet, Space: 1889, Forgotten Futures, HarnMaster, Over The Edge, Unknown Armies ... I could go on. A lot of cross-pollenization takes place, taking ideas out of one game and putting them into another -- great NPCs know no boundaries.

After that, I'd have to say the news. I listen NPR every day and find all sorts of odd inspirations here. Not that I want to parallel the modern world (at least not point-for-point), but there are strange corners in these stories, odd ways of thinking, some of which can work its way into my games.

I also have a bizarre collection of bookmarks on the 'Net, well over 300. Weird America, CIA World Factbook, various re-enacting groups, Retro-Futurism, dozens of game sites for games I do not and/or have not yet played, sites on heraldry, geography, and the rest.

And of course movies and even talks with friends.

Well, I could go on and on ... or I could come back and place in some of my stranger and more amusing links

 

[Night]

I get most of my inspiration, actually, just from discussing the game with my players; hearing things they've come up with, talking about obscure lore info from some forgotten sourcebook they remember, and just bouncing ideas back and forth.

It can be a little aggravating when they're all playing in my campaign and I don't want to spoil anything for them, mind, but it's just how my creative process works.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I steal shamelessly from anywhere my interests take me. History, knitting, football. I don't actually knit or watch football, but if I did I'd steal from there too.

 

[Fobok]

Books. Movies. PC Games. TV. Comics. Other RPG systems. Sometimes even my dreams.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Books, Art, Video Games, and Music mostly.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Maps. Look at good maps - the gorgeous work of people on the internet, maps in RPG products, even historical maps - and your mind just opens up to infinity.

 

[Mistwell]

Usually from fantasy novels, movies, and television. Recently also from the Open Grace supplement for 4e, which is chalk full of inspirational adventure ideas.